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Reprint. Hard cover, 12mo, in blue cloth blocked in black with bands of abstract roping across top and art deco overlapping fans at bottom of front board, repeated in blind on the rear board. A floral vignette within a reverse printed black square is at center front, with titles above in black and gold. Black floral decoration continued onto the spine, with titles aslant in gold. Part of the Nicholson Standard Series (listed 6th from bottom of list on the printed yellow endpapers.) Printed on foolscap at W. Nicholson & Sons, London [Publisher W. Nichol and Company was located at this London address from 1895 to 1919.] 248 pp. plus 8pp. publisher's catalogue. CONDITION: Very Good Plus. Light Rubbing at joints. Small spot soiling to rear cover (dime sized). 2 pinhead sized holes at center front hinge. Light offset to front endpapers and browning at rear endpapers. Text pages lightly age toned, as expected, but otherwise clean and firm in the hand.**This is the most celebrated, and first written, title of the Brooklyn-born American crime writer ANNA KATHERINE GREEN, (1846-1935), who has been called the "Mother of the American Detective Novel." "The Leavenworth Case" is the first of twelve thrillers featuring the Detective Ebenezer Gryce. Two sisters are wards of their tea merchant uncle, Horatio Leavenworth. In this locked room mystery, the uncle is found murdered in the library of his New York home by his private secretary. A coroner's inquest ensues, and the case develops, casting doubts on the motives of Miss Eleanor Leavenworth... The Putnam and Sons American first edition is listed in Hubin in 1878 ; it was also reprinted by Routledge in 1884. (Hubin, 1984, p. 175) Green was the daughter of a lawyer, and the work has long been praised for its portrayal of "the fallacy of circumstantial evidence," having been assigned as a teaching tool at Yale Univ. Green was much in demand as a crime writer, translated into German, and listed in the 1893's "A Woman of the Century," a biographical dictionary. F.E. Ward and M.A. R. Livermore, (Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1893.) A scarce edition.
Ref: MYST 9459
$145.00